Holidays When You’re Almost An Adult [Chronicles Of The City]

I love pretty much all holidays, especially my birthday, but I adore festivities and reasons to celebrate. So from Thanksgiving until after New Years’ I am pretty much a ball of joy. Christmas time in my household is a spectacular time of year. We have enough decorations to outfit Santa’s workshop probably. This is the first year that I’m not spending the majority of December at home. Of course, I have my own home now. Alex and I did get a Christmas tree, and it’s really cute and his name is Lucas. I don’t know why we keep naming inanimate objects, but we do. Just accept it.

I’m going home on Thursday, and I am so excited to walk into my house and just feel Christmas. One of our dogs, Nugget, even wears antlers. It’s the best. I’ve been thinking a lot about holidays and how they change as we get older. Some of our holiday traditions are still the same, like my dad making us sit at the top of the stairs until he checks to see if Santa came. We still leave out cookies and milk, although they have to be placed higher up so my sweet pup, Zeus, doesn’t get them. He ate part of our Thanksgiving turkey last year. I still can’t sleep on Christmas Eve and wake up at the ass-crack of dawn because I just get so excited!

But a lot of things have changed, and I feel like the holidays have lost their magic. The other day my dad asked what I wanted, and I really couldn’t think of anything I was coveting. I started thinking about practical stuff that I needed. And when he said I might get gift cards, I was actually excited because then I could take my time and get something when I decided I wanted it. And then I was thinking about things that I would want for the apartment or things I needed. And then I felt like a dick because while it’s nice to get stuff, I’m just really excited to go home and spend time with my family and friends and dogs.

While I’m certainly not in the right place in my life at all to settle down, I’m a little envious of my friends that have recently gotten married because they get to start their own traditions. I think Alex and I are starting traditions, and that is absolutely wonderful! But it’s weird to be in this gray area of not-yet-adulthood. We are legally adults, and we have rent and bills. It just doesn’t quite feel like we’re there yet. And that’s okay. I don’t want to be there yet really.

I do, however, want to create more traditions for this twenty-something gap of life. This is supposed to be the best time of our lives, right?! So let’s make that happen. Let’s create our own traditions for us and our friends. Let’s realize how lucky we are to be able to celebrate holidays. Let’s fill the holidays back with the magic we had when we were kids.